It is understood that one should especially protect electronic circuits, particularly those under hostile environmental conditions, as are present in automotive applications, for instance. One type of such a protection is represented by a hermetically sealed housing, in this instance, these hermetically sealed housings existing in different embodiments. Such electronic circuits situated in hermetically sealed housings are contacted electrically to the surroundings, for example, using glazed electric terminals, such as contact pins.
In this context, the contact pins and a glass blank are inserted on a base plate, a tight, electrically insulating composite between the contact pins and the base plate being created by the following melting of the glass at appropriate temperatures and the subsequent cooling. The housing is sealed in a hermetically tight fashion by tightly welding a cover onto the base plate, particularly under a protective atmosphere. The electronic circuits housed in hermetically sealed housings develop a power loss which has to be carried off to the environment by as good a heat coupling as possible. In the housings described, this is implemented by pressing the lower sides of the housings, especially of the base plate, onto a cooling surface situated separately from it. The press-on pressure is applied by an additional spring, in this instance. The seating should take place as free of gaps and as reliably as possible, in order to implement a good heat transfer to the cooling surface.
It is an object of the exemplary embodiment and/or exemplary method of the present invention to provide a novel, cost-effective possibility for a good thermal binding of the hermetically sealed housing to its environment.